[ELDK] Is ELDK 5 compatible with Linux 2.4.24 and Linux 2.6.34 ?

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Robert,

In message <4EBAF277.3060707 at promessinc.com> you wrote:
> 
> Can I use the new ELDK 5.x to build and debug user applications and 
> drivers to run on Linux 2.4.24? (Currently using a built in-house tool 
> kit with gcc 3.3.3)

Sorry, but no.  Linux 2.4.24 is something like 8 years old (I cannot
even check any more: kernel.org appears to have removed / not restored
the old 2.4 kernel tree).

Recent compilers are known to perform optimizations that will break
that old kernel code - not to mention incompatibilities in user space
libraries.

> Also, can I use the new ELDK 5.x to build and debug Xenomai applications 
> and Xenomai drivers for Linux 2.6.34? (Currently using ELDK-4.2)

Most likely this will not work either, at least not without additional
modifications / patches to the kernel tree.

I would expect that you should have problems with such an old tree
anyway - for example, I would expect that you run into problems when
using a somewhat recent Linux distribution on your development host
which includes GNU Make 3.82 - patches to support this were only added
between Linux v2.6.35 and v2.6.36-rc1 (commit e32e78c 2010-08-20).


It makes perfect sense to try and use a common tool chain base for all
projects, but this only works when all projects also use a (at least
somewhat) similar code base.  Combining recent tools with very old
code (or vice versa) is a pretty reliable way to run into problems.
Don't do it.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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